Airtel Kenya has released a stripped version of its utility app MyAirtel named Airtel Lite. It is a progressive web app, which means it is based on the web but can be installed on an Android device as a native app. It features the entire suite of Airtel subscriber features, including bundle purchases and Airtel Money. However, since it is a lite app, it can run on Android phones that are underpowered from the spec’s point of view.
I understand why this is important for Airtel. While there are over 32 million smartphones in Kenya, most are budget devices with entry-level specifications. This means they sometimes get overwhelmed running heavy apps, which is where lite apps come in. However, I do not see the essence of the app since the My Airtel app is mostly lightweight and does not include robust features like its rival, Safaricom’s M-PESA app, which the telco calls a super app and can be taxing in terms of resources for budget devices.
Besides the app, Airtel Kenya has zero-rated access to these apps, meaning they do not consume data when the customer uses them. It is not clear if this works as off-line mode like rival apps. It is also not clear if a customer needs to have an active data bundle to access the app (which is what the likes of MySafaricom does – it is zero-rated, but you must have a data subscription to use the app).
Circling back to Airtel Lite, while the market needs apps that are resource hogs, manufacturers have been manufacturing fairly powerful Android phones as the cost of materials such as processors has gone down. Android Go, the stripped-down version of Android, is no longer supported, but some manufacturers do ship it.
